Budget officials rebuff most of DOE, UH requests
By Mike Gordon and Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writers
In the first round of the annual budgeting process, both the Department of Education and the University of Hawai'i were rebuffed by state budget officials in their requests for supplemental money for fiscal 2005.
The Board of Education asked for a $51.2 million supplemental budget, but the state Department of Budget and Finance is recommending approval of only $1.5 million.
The UH system requested an additional $20 million and 100 positions — mostly to begin staffing up the new medical school in Kaka'ako for fiscal 2005 — but had just $1.06 million approved for an increase in insurance premiums at the community colleges.
While these recommendations from Budget and Finance will now go to the governor for her consideration, the numbers are a long way from the final decisions that will come out of the legislative process next session.
They also amount to only a small percentage of the massive annual budgets of the state education system. The DOE budget weighs in at about $1.3 billion a year; the UH budget, about $600 million.
Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto, in a letter this week, said she and her staff have "serious concerns" about the Budget and Finance recommendations.
No Child Left Behind
The biggest difference between the departments is over money to help schools meet performance expectations of the federal law known as No Child Left Behind.
As part of the supplemental budget request, the board is seeking $23.8 million for programs and infrastructure related to No Child Left Behind, while Budget and Finance is recommending to Gov. Linda Lingle that no additional money be provided.
Hamamoto said her department "strongly urges full funding" of the board's request. The request includes money for parent involvement, standardized testing, "highly qualified personnel," staff development and information technology.
In addition, the DOE said, Budget and Finance ignored the school board's request for nearly $1 million for infrastructure improvements, $1.5 million for the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program and $850,000 startup costs for a program to seek millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements.
In the 10-campus UH system, a major portion of the supplementary budget requests were to add at least 37 positions to give the new medical school appropriate resources.
As for the Manoa campus, money was requested to expand a Center for Geonomics, Photemics and Bioinformatics, improve the research infrastructure and fill 14 positions to bolster the new Academy for Creative Media.
The budget office also ignored a request for 12 positions for a program leading to a master's degree in social work; five positions for a School of Global Health; and six positions at UH-Hilo for the psychology department's new graduate program in methamphetamine treatment.
In response to Hamamoto's concerns, Georgina Kawamura, director of the Department of Budget and Finance, said the state doesn't have enough money to accommodate such a large supplemental request as the DOE has made — especially if all of the state's 16 departments submitted equally large numbers.
"It is my responsibility to sift through all their requests and make recommendations that are reasonable within the amount of money we have to spend," Kawamura said. "We do it in our households every day."
She stressed that no final decision has been made on department requests.
"The governor makes the final decision," Kawamura said. "The governor decides what we submit."
Lingle reaffirms goal
Asked about the DOE's complaints yesterday, Lingle said it is premature to discuss specific levels of budgeting, but she said the state must balance the needs of different departments. She repeated her previous commitment to making education reform the priority for her administration next year.
"We don't have unlimited amounts of money. We can't go print more. We have to live within our means," the governor said.
But state House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully-Pawa'a), called the Budget and Finance recommendation "unconscionable."
"President Bush and Governor Lingle pledged to take the lead on No Child Left Behind. Our children deserve more than just another broken promise."
The DOE still plans to submit the full request to the Legislature when it convenes next year, said Greg Knudsen, department spokesman.
Aware but optimistic
Because state agencies have been told by the governor to hold expenses to a minimum, the board knew that such a huge request might be too much, Knudsen said.
"But we still hoped it would be taken into consideration and looked at seriously and in relation to what appears to be an improving economy," Knudsen said.
Without the money, the department will have to struggle along, he said.
"With no additional funding, we will do what we have always done," he said. "It will require more work, more delays, more bureaucratic procedures."
Meanwhile, Budget and Finance agreed to close an existing shortfall of $3.5 million in the A-Plus Program, and $1.1 million for risk management. But taken with other recommendations, the DOE says, it would all amount to only a $1.5 million increase overall.
Differences between the board's request and the executive budget are usually considered during legislative deliberations on the final budget, the DOE said.
Staff writer Derrick DePledge contributed to this report.
